The Cherry Bomb Series is an ode to crisp and clean single-variety lots. Our hope is that each volume in the series will showcase an articulate, complex, and delicious expression of our favourite coffee varieties. These cherries are the bomb, and we think you’ll agree ;)

Tasting Notes:
Jasmine Tea
Tangerine
White Peach
Region: Cajamarca
Municipality: Chirinos
Farm: Finca La Palma
Farmer: Damian Espinoza
Variety: 100% Typica
Process: Washed
Elevation: 1800m

Description: (More in-depth info coming soon, but for now here’s the story of how we selected this coffee). I first tasted this coffee at a cupping in Lima with José Rivera, the founder of Origin Coffee Lab. We’d been buying coffees from OCL for 4 consecutive seasons, but José and I had never met in person, so we made sure to line up a meeting when I was travelling South America last fall. We did three rounds of cupping - first were the washed community blends, then the single farm lots, and we ended with the “fancy” coffees (for lack of a better term). These were the Geshas, the naturals, the Marshels (a newly-identified local mutation of Catimor that had recently won Peru’s Cup of Excellence) - basically just the top-shelf lots. José had told me briefly about Damian Espinoza, a farmer in Cajamarca, who was producing incredibly clean Typica from decades-old rootstock. Having tried some interesting wines from ancient vines in Bolivia, I was intrigued by the idea of “old vine” coffee.

From the blind cupping, this Typica blew me away. I could’ve been convinced it was a washed coffee from Sidamo or Yirgacheffe. So clean and structured, with unmistakeable floral and tea-like aromas, all back up by nectarous stonefruit sweetness. If you want your perceptions flipped about Peruvian coffee, this washed Typica is for you.

I since have gotten in touch with Damian online (he graciously shared photos from the farm), and I’m excited to try more from Finca La Palma!

-Keegan